Jenna Forss | Arts & Entertainment Editor
May 21, 2024
After the controversial Starbucks “spicy refreshers,” Starbucks decided to make up for its distasteful mistake by releasing a new, creative menu of summer drinks, promising that a customer will taste “summer at first sip.” Whether it be a nutty new cold brew surprise or a fruity pineapple cloud cake, the new Starbucks summer menu has everyone excited. As a prime member of their target audience of teenage girls, I rushed to discover this new enticing menu.
I eagerly and immediately tried the most intriguing item on the menu to me, a summer-berry refresher. I am already a fan of Starbucks’ current line of fruity refreshers, so this mirage of berry flavors in a fruity, sweet, cold drink seemed right up my alley.
But the most exciting part of this drink is that Starbucks included bursting raspberry-flavored pearls, or as some may call them “popping boba.” Starbucks has never included this unique textured add-on in any of their drinks so I was excited to see how their drinks would hold up with boba inside.
The summer-berry refresher could be enjoyed alone, with lemonade, or coconut milk. I tested both lemonade and coconut milk.
Honestly, it was very sweet and intensely sour, and this is coming from someone with a dangerous sweet tooth. But after letting the first couple of sips settle, I began to grow to like the lemonade version, its berry flavors reminded me of the bluephoria flavor of yerba matte, which I am a devoted fan of. Yet, the coconut milk version tasted like a blue raspberry Gogurt, which is not what I am looking for in my Starbucks drink.
Then we tried the orange cream cake pop, my hopes were high with a fruity cake pop flavor to stand out among their current chocolatey and cakey flavors, but I was sadly disappointed. The white-chocolate icing was thick and clashed with the orange cream cake on the inside. Fellow taste-tester of the new menu, senior Mika Kuhne described the taste as an “expired orange Chobani yogurt.”
The new summer menu also contains a white chocolate macadamia cream cold brew, a caramel ribbon crunch frappuccino, and a pineapple cloud cake. Even though the items I tried from the new summer menu may have not lived up to my expectations, it appears there is something for everyone in this new selection! Go give it a try!
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